Taxi Studio has has raised some darker spirits for the packaging of The Black Grouse Alpha Edition.

Brand design agency Taxi was commissioned by Scotch whisky brand The Famous Grouse to give the packaging of The Black Grouse Alpha Edition a new look.

Launching in Waitrose and Duty Free outlets this month, The Black Grouse Alpha Edition is described as "a more dramatic version of The Black Grouse", so it needed a dramatic new look to match.

The Famous Grouse's senior brand manager has described the new bottle and outer packaging design as "distinctive and iconic".

"Our job was to sympathetically bring together the character of the black grouse, the Lek – a mating ritual which takes place in their natural habitat to establish the alpha male – and the unique whisky blend to deliver a darker, moodier, more premium addition to The Famous Grouse family," explains Taxi design director Jonathan Turner-Rogers.

On each side of the outer box is a letter from the word 'ALPHA', with a product story relating to that letter written beneath each of the letters.

"The black grouse is illustrated at dawn when the Lek takes place, the rising mist a nod to the whisky's smoky notes" Spencer Buck, Taxi's creative director adds. "The dramatic result elevates the product's premium cues whilst safeguarding the brand's most precious equity: the grouse itself."